A switching device to be used in an electronic circuit such as an inverter circuit and a converter circuit generally consists of a plurality of switching elements (chips) connected in parallel to increase the current capacity. As switching elements, in addition to Si switching elements chiefly made of Si (silicon), SiC switching elements chiefly made of SiC (silicon carbide) have been developed. SiC switching elements include SiC-MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors), SiC-bipolar transistors, SiC-JFETs (Junction Field Effect Transistors), and SiC-IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors), etc.